Goals update

First I’ll start with what I’ve accomplished then follow up with what my plans are for the rest of my goals. How does that sound? K… here we go.

I’ve been drawing a bit more than usual [per goal #1]. I’m allowing myself to doodle, which is always good for keeping the drawing hand limber. I’ve also been journaling and drawing doodles on my journal pages. But mostly I’ve been drawing up plans and adding nonsensical BS to the sketches.

Hopefully I will be able to use goal #1 to create an original stamp for me to use. I bought all the things I need to carve one [my dad sent me money for my birthday] and am looking forward to screwing up my first stamp.

I’ve made the slouch bag. I used a women’s linen shirt for the exterior and some crane fabric for the interior with antiqued brass zipper, clasp and rectangle rings. It turned out amazing and is available for sale now. The two pics I posted, er, um… my boyfriend went to India and needed both cameras. So, I am making due with my phone. We all know phone pics suck so, let’s not pretend I can do better than what you see here.

I’m a wallet short of my total from last month because I sold one, but considering that’s the main goal, it’s okay.

I’ve embroidered a bunch of embroidery files that I wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise. I have a tendency to buy embroidery files without a purpose, just because I want them. A good portion of them will be ornaments by thanksgiving, just so I can get my money’s worth out of them.

When I was little and missing my mom or dad, I’d get something of theirs and smell it to remember them. So, I made a pillow with some of the embroidery files I hadn’t used yet for my boyfriend who will be in India for the next 2 weeks. I slept with it all weekend so I could get my scent on it then put it in a plastic bag for his suitcase. I got the idea [to do this on purpose] last year when my son was missing me a bunch [he lives with his dad out of state]. I made a quilt for him and slept with it for a week and then sent it to him. He said my scent lasted a whole month. I thought that was awesome.

I’m working on a possible schedule of making a few bags a week to start. Hopefully I will be able to convince myself to stay on task. The slouch bag took 2 days and really should have taken 2 hours. It turned out amazing and I wish I had a better camera to show you the awesomeness of this bag.

Pindsvin will be finished by the end of the week. I gave myself til next weekend and if I finish him I get to play some video games. I’m thinkin Plants Vs Zombies.

Oh, that’s the other thing I’ve been working on, a reward system. I tend to bullshit a lot. A LOT! lol. And, I don’t like it, so I’m brainstorming ways to fix that. I like deadlines. I practically NEED them to get anything done. Self imposed deadlines are a bit harder to enforce, but the guilt of watching a movie anyway, when all I had to do was spend two hours making a bag, will hopefully be enough of a deterrent. I don’t like guilt, as I’m sure you don’t either. This reward system will need some tweaking with time. We’ll see how it goes.

So, that’s the update. As the month goes on, I hope to keep you up to date on my studio and it’s chaos. Until next time, happy crafting.

10 things

“Instructions: Write down 10 things you love about being an artist.” – Keri Smith [www.kerismith.com]

[in no particular order]

1. Creating. Making something with my hands.
2. Design. Figuring out new ideas and working them out on paper.
3. Cutting/destroying something to make it new/better.
4. Making something useful.
5. Making something pretty/attractive.
6. Sharing my attractive useful creations.
7. Impressing others with my skills.
8. Knowing I’m able bodied and HAVE skills.
9. I can depend on myself to get the project finished.
10. Not knowing what it’s like to NOT be one.

February Goals

My goals for January were:

1. Unify the look across facebook, twitter, artfire, indiepublic, this blog and etsy. If closing shop is unify, then that’s done. lol.
   
2. Create a new look for the Artfire shop. The banner and avi are cute, they just don’t fit my logo. I created the banner and settled on a font for the logo. Hopefully I’ll stick with it and quit changing it.
3. Make AIW tea towels for AIW release. Made 4 of 6 towels. Will make 2 more and that’s it, I’m out of towels.
4. Assess advertising costs and benefits. Too expensive and pointless now that I’m not online.
5. Redesign bag to make assembly easier and less chance for mistakes. [I'm not looking forward to this because the end result will look too similar to another persons bag. But in order to stabilize the bag properly this adjustment MUST be made. I just hope I can make it look different enough or just relax about it.] Decided not to do this… it turned out fine the next two times I made it.
6. Drape a commissioned shoulder bag. She wants silk. Draped the pattern, but haven’t decided on one key element. Still waiting on a shipment from a supplier.
7. Make enough wallets and purses for the show in February.
8. Make more brooches for the spring show. Decide whether they will be shown in February. I think I have enough brooches for now and tend to make a few every so often, so by spring this should be done.
9. Get at least 6 really good days in production mode — 8-16 hour stints of cutting, sewing and finishing.
10. I have 7 wallets and 1 clutch. Make 18 more wallets and 9 more clutches by February 1st with 75% of them being made from recycled, reused, repurposed and rescued material.
11. Balance my time well between creating and my family. My son will be here for 3 weeks, then my BF is leaving for a couple weeks and I need to spend time with both AND create bags for the show in February. Spent time on my business and with my family. Not the greatest of success [no snow] but it worked out fine.

My goals for February are:

1. Draw more!
2. Make a few more zipper pouches. Try a different shape.
3. Finish the embroidered buttons.
4. Embroider some of the designs I made and photograph them.
5. Make two more pomegranate brooches. Have beads, will embroider!
6. Make some bags from the two styles I draped last month.
7. Assemble some bags from the pile of cuts I made over a month ago.
8. Continue making enough wallets and purses for the street fair in May.
9. Try out a schedule for production. A day for cutting, a day for sewing, a day for spreadsheets, a day or 3 for networking.
10. Dig into the recycled material totes more often.
11. Finish embroidering Pindsvin. [he's almost done and looking oh so cute]
12. Gather cards from Bella Luna and pay a visit to Kings Books.
13. Create a to do list and follow it. I really like the goal sheet on getbuttonedup.com. There’s a yearly sheet AND an individual one. I like the idea of a reward at the end of each goal [on the individual one].

Look for more goal updates later in the month. Happy Crafting.

Oak Leaf – Free Pattern

Want to make this really cool brooch? Would you rather make a barrette or sew a bunch together to make a headband? Well, this week I’m offering the means to do it. Download this pdf [white oak leaves and acorns] to make the brooch in the picture. There’s even some super cute acorns to make this brooch as well…

Consider it a bonus!

To make the brooch or barrette:

1. Cut the main leaf out of felt in the desired size. [mine's mustard yellow - nice and autumny]
2. Sew this leaf onto the border color felt. [dark brown works well in this case]
3. Trim the border color felt close to the main leaf without cutting your stitches. About 1/8th inch.
4. Sew a pin back or barrette to the back of the leaf.

To make a head band:

1. Measure the length of the head band and make sure you have enough felt for it.
2. Cut many leaves in different sizes and colors.
3. Sew the leaves in an overlapping line from one end to the other.
4. Trim the excess felt away in the same manner as the brooch.
5. Sew on a 4 inch piece of 1/4 – 1/2 in elastic to either end to finish the headband.

Mostly have fun, be creative and happy crafting. If you make these and blog about them, leave a comment and post your link here.

Tiny update

Here’s a list of things to look forward to from me in the coming weeks…

❁ Fabulous Friday is coming back, but not just on fridays and not just Etsy sellers. I’m renaming it and posting whenever I find some amazing things. If you’d like to see something featured, let me know.
❁ Still waiting on spotlight questionnaires from a couple super busy divas. Email me if you’re interested in a spotlight at brooklynechaos[at]gmail.com.
❁ More desktop backgrounds. Banners and avatars will also be added.
❁ Semi regular update on my goals and how I reached them. I love the Monthly Goal meetup, but I’d like to expand on it a little, just a little.

So, there you have it. A few things to look forward to and tiny list to reference [for me] when I forget to focus. Which we all know is going to happen, it’s what I do to refocus that makes all the difference. Thanks for visiting my blog. I love reading your comments. Happy crafting!

Simplicity

have been blogging for almost a year. I believe March is my anniversary month and is creeping up fast. I hoped to be further along in my blogging goals. It relaxes me to write a well written sentence and to learn from the poorly written ones. So it pangs me to say that I haven’t written for awhile AND haven’t stuck with my original schedule.

‘ve been working through a lot. I reopened my Etsy shop in April of last year to only be completely frustrated with the lack of sales and interest in the items I have listed. No amount of the marketing I did for over 6 months amounted to anything tangible. I’ve increased my original 3 sales in 2007 to 13 in 2009. Juniper Drive has only had 6 sales total between 2 shops [ArtFire and Etsy] over a period of 6 months. It has been a waste of good energy and time I could be using to create an amazing product.

o, last month, I stopped listing completely. Well, not completely, Artfire WAS offering a free for life account for anyone who listed between 950,000 and 999,999. How could I resist listing a few things? Other than that little gamble, I haven’t listed because I wanted to concentrate on my product. I tweaked and ran numbers on all of this seasons bags. I searched and researched the best fabric to use, the best vendors to shop with and the next move I want to make. Listing items was a negative priority. It wasn’t even the lowest, it was 0 minus 2 on the priority list. lol.

eciding which direction I wanted to go was probably the hardest decision I had to make. There were a lot of factors involved and a culmination of events that finally led to the end decision: to minimize my online presence as much as possible and maximize my presence in the community. A driveby posting  in a thread I was in led me to a blog post that detailed why one person left Etsy.

“And i also dont want to spend my time and energy promoting Etsy; does it make sense to direct my contacts to a site where they can leave my shop and enter a competitive mall of artistic offerings?”- Chickory

This statement is what triggered me to leave Etsy entirely and to stop straddling the damn fence. She makes a lot of really good points, but this is what clicked for me and why I should just leave it. Like you tell a dog: “LEAVE IT!!” Damn it, and I mean it this time! lol

hat am I to do now? Well, that is where I get all excited and start talking about art fairs, street fairs, local venues and networking. I love community. I love getting involved and doing things that impact my community and neighborhood. When I do sell a bag, brooch, embroidered tea towel, altered clothing, barrette, or anything else I might make, it’s all local. Though my online stores have crapped on me, my local selling has soared and is still rising. I look forward to a future where the only time I spend online is to connect with the ones I care about, play a few games and conduct research. Gone is the way of the online marketing/business/time waster for me. I’m on to greener pastures to connect with real people and real events. This is where my passion lies and I’m ready to move on it.

here does this leave you? I have an answer for that in a round about way. I will blog about Brooklyne’s chaos, her crafts and their exploits whenever I remember to. I will connect via twitter and facebook to let everyone know what great things are happening here in Bremerton and the Pacific NW. I’m still available for commissions. One online venue will remain open for custom orders and local customers that would like an online connection. Once I’ve decided on which one, I will let you all know. It obviously won’t be Etsy or ArtFire, Zibbet and any other mall is out, but I know I will have to have one, there’s no way around it.

In the end, a decision has been made and I’m looking forward to all that that entails. See ya on twitter or facebook. Happy crafting!

Drop caps have been provided by and copyrighted Daily Drop Cap.

Handmade PIF

I received my PIF from inkihandmade and my first reaction was, “This smells great!” I don’t know if it’s the post office or her house that smells like this, but I approve! She sent me some of her cards and handmade envelopes from magazine pages. Super cool!

Remember to read the rules before commenting. I will be sending my PIFs to a few lucky commenters on January 28th, so you have til then to enter. Let’s make this fun… in your comment, tell me your favorite color and, if it had a smell, what you think it smells like. I’ll start: my favorite color is green and I think it smells like key lime pie with graham cracker crust.

***
In order to participate in this, there are a few requirements:

1. I will choose an undisclosed number of people who comment on this post to send a gift to. This gift I have made with my own hands, and with love.

2. If you choose to comment, and you receive a gift from me, you commit yourself to Paying It Forward.

3. You must then make a post on your blog, making the same offer to your readers.

4. On your blog post, you must include this list of requirements (basically, all the text between the asterisks***). You choose how many people you Pay It Forward to – though it would be nice if it was more than one. However, I realise that some of you make high-end or expensive wares, and I don’t want to exclude you from participating by setting a minimum number above one.

5. In each of your packages, as well as your gift, please include a minimum of 5 business cards (if you have them). Also include the business cards that you received in your gift – this allows every recipient to visit the people who’s generosity brought Handmade Pay It Forward to them.

6. Finally, in your PIF blog post, include the history of your gift – i.e. the name and blog of all the people before you in the journey.

Handmade Pay It Forward 2009 – Those that gave before me: Jess from EpheriellDesigns, Juanita from JuanitaTortilla, E. from inkihandmade,

7. Please only participate once. Obviously, if you haven’t received a gift within a few weeks of leaving a comment on a PIF post, you can probably assume you missed out that time, and try again if you see it elsewhere. This keeps the PIF goodness spreading to new people! I think I will start a new one once a year… but we’ll see how this evolves!

8. Please use the button above on your blog to share that you have participated!

***

Putting on the Brakes

I’ve been sitting here, day after day, wondering how to sell crafts online. I’ve come across forum threads, blog posts, dedicated sections on venue sites, books and classes. They all seem like they’re saying the same thing: marketing, branding, promoting… hustle, hustle, hustle. But what happens when someone does all this and it still doesn’t work. For me, marketing and promoting causes much stress and takes away from my creating time and energy. I would much rather make a product, package it and ship it off to where ever it’s getting sold. I hate consignment prices, so I am stuck selling online as well. I don’t like taking pictures. I don’t like writing listings. I don’t like marketing. If all I had to do was take reasonable pictures that show what the item is and the texture of the product, then taking pictures would be easy. If all I had to do was write a quick but detailed description of the product, then writing listings would be a breeze. If all I had to do was write in this blog and comment on my favorite blogs to promote my shop, then promotion and marketing would be a non-issue.

The complaint I have about this whole thing is: we are independent contractors, working for ourselves and yet we are still expected to perform as the corporations do. We are convinced by Etsy and now Artfire that we should take magazine quality photos, with an underlying message that full product shots are less a goal than artsy closeups. We have people like Tim Adams telling us that all we need to do is blog, tweet, facebook, myspace and generally annoy the hell out of everyone to get our items sold. There is a barrage of successful sellers with tips and tricks on how to sell and luckily they’re all saying the same thing. Otherwise it’d be really confusing for the average Cathy Crafter. I have done these things. I have followed the rules of how to get sales and have yet to sell anything. I cannot imagine that being online for 8+ hours a day could do any less than increase sales, but it’s happened. I’ve been told I give up too soon, but 6 months of constant marketing and selling only three towels for the holiday season doesn’t say results to me.

Now, into the new year, I have a new line coming out. A few things are still in development, but I am expecting a release later this month. Am I excited? Yes. Am I looking forward to selling these things online? No. My items sell locally. They do not sell online. So, I will focus mostly on the shows coming up and list a few things online. I have 70 items in my shop on Artfire, so I don’t think people are looking at an empty shop and moving on. I do think that I have a lot of different things in my shop, but they are clearly marked in the categories. I can honestly say that I don’t know what to do other than focusing on these shows coming up. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Let me know your thoughts on this. I’d be interested to hear what others have to say.

Thank Yous and Goals

Wow, you guys are amazing! I assumed that my readership would drop off this month due to inactivity, but it has stayed the same. I’m impressed. I have been so busy with making the holidays special and catering to all my families needs that I didn’t have time to blog. I was expecting, once the holiday rush was over that I’d come back to an almost dead blog. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the people that showed up and counted as readers. You’re amazing! And to all who visit in the future, I appreciate you as well. I write for you guys as well as myself, otherwise I’d just keep my posts to my desktop.

So, onto this months goals. Being busy with the holidays and time with family, I do not have a fancy folder graphic for your amusement. I wish I could have had one ready for this post, but I have so much to do this next month, it will have to fall to the bottom of the priorities list. Some of the goals from this list will be moved to February’s goals and are marked in purple.

My goals for December were:

1. Finalize blog design.
2. Make presents. <– Started! Decided on scarves for everyone. They were a hit!
3. Assess advertising costs and benefits.
4. Draw more!
5. Close Brooklyne Chaos shop.
6. Implement plan for holiday season. No need for this since I had no sales leading up to the holidays.
7. Drape the clutch I was commissioned to do. Turned out amazing!
8. Sew some samples before making the final bag. The samples and some new bags will be available in my shop later this month!
9. Make a few more zipper pouches, try a holiday theme.
10. Finish the embroidered buttons and list them.
11. Make AIW tea towels.
12. Embroider some of the designs I made and photograph them.
13. Stop listing designs without embroidering them first!
14. Create whenever possible. I have two possible shows next year – one in the summer and one in the fall.
15. Make two more pomegranate brooches. Have beads, will embroider!
16. Create a new look for the Artfire shop. The banner and avi are cute, they just don’t fit my logo.
17. Unify the look across facebook, twitter, artfire, indiepublic and etsy.

My goals for January are:

1. Unify the look across facebook, twitter, artfire, indiepublic, this blog and etsy.
2. Create a new look for the Artfire shop. The banner and avi are cute, they just don’t fit my logo.
3. Make AIW tea towels for AIW release.
4. Assess advertising costs and benefits.
5. Redesign bag to make assembly easier and less chance for mistakes. [I'm not looking forward to this because the end result will look too similar to another persons bag. But in order to stabilize the bag properly this adjustment MUST be made. I just hope I can make it look different enough or just relax about it.]
6. Drape a commissioned shoulder bag. She wants silk.
7. Make enough wallets and purses for the show in February.
8. Make more brooches for the spring show. Decide whether they will be shown in February.
9. Get at least 6 really good days in production mode — 8-16 hour stints of cutting, sewing and finishing.
10. I have 7 wallets and 1 clutch. Make 18 more wallets and 9 more clutches by February 1st with 75% of them being made from recycled, reused, repurposed and rescued material.
11. Balance my time well between creating and my family. My son will be here for 3 weeks, then my BF is leaving for a couple weeks and I need to spend time with both AND create bags for the show in February.

That should be it. I hope it all gets done. It seems pared down compared to my previous months entries, but it’s really not. I’m simply focusing more. Maybe that should be a new years failolution.

Graphics copyright 2009 Lindstar Graphics, Juniper Drive and Brooklyne Chaos. All Rights reserved. Use prohibited unless with written permission.

Bokeh [not to be mistaken with bukkake]

I found a tutorial and boy are you guys in luck! Have you seen those lens flare photos? The ones where the whole pic is covered in lit up circles. Well, I just learned how to do that! XD

Here are some 1280 x 1024 desktop backgrounds for your enjoyment.

This one’s a little more holidayesque…

Just click on the one you want, right click the picture that loads and select “set as desktop background”. That’s it! Super easy, huh? Happy holidays!